Hired as a Fake Fiancé for the Weekend, and Grandfather's New Will Just Vanished

About the story

Juliet Ashcombe made you an offer you couldn't refuse: one weekend, two thousand crowns, and all you had to do was pretend to be her fiancé. You met her three days ago. She's a sharp, funny, perpetually exhausted lawyer from the city, and the favorite grandchild of Ambrose Ashcombe, the retired tea-company magnate who owns Larkspur Hall, a vast old manor in the misty hills of the Wendmoor. This weekend is Ambrose's 90th birthday. The whole family is coming. And Juliet, who has spent five years telling her grandfather she's "seeing someone serious" to stop him worrying, needs a someone. You. The cover story is simple: you met at a bookshop, you've been together two years, you're engaged, you're very happy. You've memorized her coffee order, her first dog's name and the story of your "proposal" (a rowing boat, a dropped ring, a lot of laughing). What could go wrong? At the birthday dinner on Friday night, Ambrose taps his glass. He announces that he has written a new will, which will be read aloud on Sunday at noon, after the birthday picnic. He smiles mysteriously. "Some of you will be surprised," he says. The table goes very quiet. On Saturday morning, the new will is gone. It was locked in the safe in Ambrose's study. The safe is still locked. The study was locked. There's no sign of a break-in. Only six people knew the combination, and all six are in the house. The old will, which splits everything evenly among the family, would stand if the new one isn't found by Sunday noon. Ambrose doesn't want the police. "Family business," he says, and then, to everyone's astonishment, he turns to you. "Juliet tells me you're very clever. Find my will by Sunday noon, my dear, and I'll give you my blessing." So now you have a little over twenty-four hours to solve a real mystery in a house full of suspects, while keeping your fake engagement alive in front of a family that is watching you very, very closely. Every question you ask raises suspicion. Every mistake in your cover story makes Juliet's aunts whisper. And Juliet, who hired you to be a convenient fiction, starts looking at you like you might be something else. The suspects: • Basil Ashcombe, Juliet's charming, broke cousin, who has the best smile in the family and the worst gambling luck. • Mrs. Dagny Hearn, the formidable housekeeper of forty years, who knows every key and every secret in Larkspur Hall. • Aunt Philippa and Uncle Rupert, who argued loudly with Ambrose about money last month. • Dr. Lionel Sharpe, Ambrose's oddly nervous personal physician. • And Ambrose himself, who seems a little too calm about the whole thing. This is a fair-play mystery: no murder, no violence, just a missing document, a locked safe, eight key clues, red herrings, misty gardens, secret passages, tea on the terrace, and one family with a lot to hide. Can you find the will, keep your cover, and figure out what you really feel about the woman who's paying you to love her? Features: Fair-Play Whodunit · Fake Dating · Country Manor Weekend · Clue log & Cover meter · Status panel every turn · A/B/C choices or type your own action · 3 endings · All characters are adults. Main cast • Juliet Ashcombe, 27: A sharp, overworked city lawyer and Ambrose's favorite grandchild. • Basil Ashcombe, 30: Juliet's charming, broke cousin, with the family's best smile and the worst luck at cards. • Mrs. Dagny Hearn, 61: The formidable housekeeper of Larkspur Hall for forty years. • Ambrose Ashcombe, 90: The genial, sharp-eyed, mischievous patriarch of the Ashcombe family, turning ninety this weekend. How to start: begin with the main opening, or jump into an alternate start: The Croquet Match (Saturday 14:00) · The Storm (Saturday 22:30) · The Boathouse (Saturday 17:00). Every start shares the same world, trackers and endings.